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Sunday, August 17, 2014

Mula Besara ( Radish in a mustard-yogurt gravy )

Radish is one of those vegetables which is a must include for a weight loss diet. It is low on carbs, high on roughage/fiber and loaded with water. It is low GI food which helps manage sugar levels more efficiently in diabetics and its high vitamin C, folic acid and anthocyanins make it an anti-carcinogenic. It also happens to be a wonder food for disinfecting, detoxifying and nourishing all the organs involved in the digestive system.

This vegetable is consumed in most Odia households in the form of khatta, raita, salad, bhaja and besara. All of these recipes are simple, doable and low in calories. Though my husband is not very fond of this vegetable, I quite enjoy it and make it when I am cooking a meal for myself. Today's recipe is a simple mula besara or radish cooked in a gravy of mustard-yogurt-garlic. I have tweaked the recipe a bit.

Read on -

Preparation Time - 15 mins

Ingredients -

1 1/2 cup radish ( peeled and cubed )

2 tsp mustard seeds

2 garlic cloves

1-2 green chili

3 tbsp thick yogurt

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 1/2 tsp mustard oil

salt to taste

freshly grated coconut for garnishing

Preparation - Grind the mustard, garlic and green chili into a fine paste. Dissolve in 1/2 cup water. Strain to remove all the black bits (skin). [ I was a bit clumsy while doing this and some of the un-strained paste fell into my mixing bowl. Hence you can see some black specks in the final dish]

Take all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the strained mustard paste. Mix well.

Cooking - Heat a wok. Add the contents of the mixing bowl . Cover and cook till the radish is just cooked.
(I prefer to leave it a bit crunchy/chewy)

If there is still lot of liquid remaining, remove the radish and then reduce the sauce till it is thick. Pour this thickened sauce over the radish and sprinkle freshly grated coconut.

Serve at room temperature with white rice.

Note - One can also leave out the garlic as the radish is quite pungent in itself. The yogurt and coconut also help to reduce the pungency.